Paper tunnel crazy golf

It's Monday again and today's activity is this fun 'aiming' game. This is really simple to set up and only requires three items, although can create hours of fun.  

What you will need:

- card or paper

- tape (masking tape is ideal)

- ball

1. First of all, bend you paper so it creates a half circle shape.

2. Tape each side of the paper down to the floor, keeping the half circle shape when you do so. Masking tape works best as it sticks down well, but is easy to peel off when you are done with the activity.

3. Now for the fun part, using a ball, roll it through the targets. If you get good at this, you could even try to roll them through two targets in one go!

Extra Suggestions:

- I used plain paper, but you could use coloured paper or colour in your targets to extend this activity further. 

- You could also number your targets with points so that the targets furthest away have the highest amount of points.

Fish hand puppets

Happy Friday! Today is the last themed activity of the week. These fish puppets are really easy to make and are great for younger children as they can practise cutting out the shape with safety scissors. You can also go wild with the decoration and colours and pair the puppet with a book to make story time even more fun.

What you will need:

- Paper or card

- skewers/lollipop sticks/straws/pencils

- tape

- pencil

- scissors 

-glue stick 

- any other crafty bits for decoration, such as googly eyes. (you could colour in your fish if you are using plain paper)

1.  First of all, draw around your hand to create the fish's body. You could draw around different sized hands if you wanted to create a family of fish. 

2. Once you have drawn around your hand, cut it out*.  

3. Tape the skewer or lollipop stick to the back of the fish. 

4. Now for the fun part, decoration! I added a googly eye, but you could draw your eye on. To create the mouth cut out a heart shape on coloured paper.* Glue half of this down onto the front of the fish. 

5. Now you have your fish, create a show or pair this with your favourite book. The book 'The Rainbow Fish' is perfect to pair your puppet with.

Extra Suggestion:

- As well as fish, you can also create other animals also using the shape of your hand. Some animals that work particularly well are:

- Flamingo

- Elephant

- Giraffe

- Dinosaurs 

(* = adult help/supervision might be needed for that particular task).

Puppet Show Theatre

Lights, Camera, Action! Today's activity continues from Monday, so if you made these puppets, this is a great addition to help you make your own show. I've decorated mine in a simple way, but you could go the extra mile to make a theatre experience!

What you will need:

- A4 sized piece of cardboard (cereal boxes are perfect for this)

- parchment paper/tracing paper or even just a plain sheet of A4 paper

- ruler

- scissors

- pencil

- tape

- paint or colouring pens

1. Firstly, you will need to make the frame for the theatre using a piece of thin cardboard. I used the front piece of an old cereal box. Using a ruler, draw a line a few centimetres from the edge of the box around each side. 

2.  This next task can be tricky so you might need an adult's help. You will need to cut out the inside of the frame, leaving you with just the border (see image 3).*

3. Measure and cut your paper so it will fit inside your frame.* You will need a little bit of excess paper so that you can stick it to the back of the frame. 

4. Tape the paper to the back of the frame. Make sure that the paper is laid flat and is pulled tight.

5.  So that your theatre will stand up, cut out two triangles the same size.* The easiest way to do this is use the box you have left over and cut off the corners. Tape these so that the straight edge is in line with the bottom of the frame. 

6. Now for the most fun part, decoration! I painted mine, but you could also colour it in. I went for a bright red and painted the word 'theatre' onto the front. You could also make curtains for your theatre to make it even more realistic.

7. Finally, place your theatre in front of a window or a light area or in a dark area using a torch as a spotlight and hold up your puppets behind it. You can create a great show from just using shadows.

Extra Suggestion:

- If you have prepared a show, you could make some tickets and invite everyone to watch it at your theatre!

(* = adult help/supervision might be needed for that particular task).

Shadow Puppets

Happy Bank Holiday Monday! This is the last themed activity week and it will be theatre themed. To start us off, we have these shadow puppets which are really easy to make and stand out so well in the dark with a torch. This is great for imaginative play as you can come up with story lines to match the characters.

What you will need:
- Lollipop sticks/skewers (or if you don't have these you could use pencils)
- If you are making your own template, you will need a pencil and paper. If not you can use the template I have used as I have linked it below.
- Tape 
- Scissors
- Torch

1. First of all, cut out your template.* I found one online which has a mixture animals. This is great for imaginative play as it will be fun inventing the script for the show!

2. Once you have cut out your shapes, tape the skewer/lollipop stick to the back of the animal head.

3. Now you have your puppet, find somewhere that is dark and turn on your torch to see some amazing shadows.

Link for animal template

Extra Suggestion:

- If you want to try a different template you could make a puppet show using other shapes like people or different animals. 

(* = adult help/supervision might be needed for that particular task).

Magic Marbling Milk

Today's activity is a fun science experiment using food colouring, milk and washing up liquid. This is one where you will definitely hear lots of 'oohs and aahs'. It is also a great activity to incorporate into home learning as you can explain the science behind this in a visual and exciting way!

What you will need:
- shallow bowl/plate
- milk (you only need enough to fill the surface of your bowl/plate)
- food colouring (gel food colour won't work as well for this)
- cotton bud 
- washing up liquid 


1. First of all, fill your plate/bowl with some milk, you only need enough to cover the bottom of the plate.

2. Add droplets of your food colouring into the milk. You can add as many colours as you like! (Just be aware that food colouring does stain, so an adult to supervise this task may be a good idea).

3. Now squirt a small amount of washing up liquid onto the cotton bud and place the cotton bud into the milk mixture.

4. You should start to see that when you place the cotton bud into the milk, the colours move and separate, creating an amazing marble pattern.

To explain how this works, have a look at the 'How does it work section?' in this link: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/milk-color-explosion/

Extra Suggestion:

- As a way of remembering this experiment, you could place a piece of paper onto the surface of your mixture and lift it out to see the pattern transfer onto the paper.

Straw Rockets

Ready for lift off! Today's activity is rocket making, they are simple to make and create hours of fun for all ages. This can also make a fun game if you compete against each other to see whose rocket flies the highest!

What you will need:

- paper

- 1 straw

- glue stick or tape

- scissors 

- pencil

- colouring pens/pencils

1. Firstly, you will need to draw out your rocket onto the piece of paper. Try not to make it bigger than 15cm long as it might be too big/heavy to take off. I will link some templates below if you don't want to draw one. 

2. Once you have drawn or printed out your design, colour it in and cut it out*. 

3. Using your paper again, cut out a small rectangle* and roll it up, creating a tube, as shown in image 4. Tape or glue the end of tube to create a pocket and stick this to the back of the rocket with the taped up side at the top.

4. Your rocket is now complete, but to make it fly we need to use the straw. If you have a straw with a bendy side, point it upwards and place that part of the straw in the pocket that you have already created. Blow out into the other end of the straw and the air should push the rocket upwards.

Link for rocket template

Extra suggestion:

- You could create a game of air football using a similar method. Create two goal posts, use a ping pong ball or scrunched up paper ball and play against each other to see who can score the most goals by only blowing through the straw!

(* = adult help/supervision might be needed for that particular task).

Sponge Darts

It looks like it is going to be another sunny day, so this activity is a great one to get outside! This is really easy to set up and the aim is to see how many points you can get by throwing the sponges onto the target. I like how adaptable this is, as for younger children they can stand closer to the target and for older children  this can be made more challenging by standing further away as they start to get better at throwing the sponges at the target!

What you will need:

- sponge(s)

- some chalk (I used a different colour for each circle in the target but this is not essential)

1. Firstly, for this activity you will need to find a tarmacked area like a driveway or carpark, but you could also use a wall or fence.

2. Once you found a space to create your game, start to draw out your target. I started with the outer circle. It is tricky to draw the perfect circle, but don't worry too much as it won't really affect the game. Draw out three circles and a bulls eye.

4. Now you have your target, label each section with the amount of points you get for landing on each circle. I did it so that you won one point for the outer circle, two points for the second circle, three points for the inner circle and five points if you hit the bullseye.

5. Finally, to make it obvious where you have hit the target, soak the sponges in water. When you take your turn to hit the target you will see the splash marks of where your sponge has landed.

Extra suggestion:

- As an alternative to sponges you could also use bean bags or even water balloons!